On November 14, 2013, a roofer working with Fairview Contractors Inc. fell to his death while performing roofing work at a condominium in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. According to a recent news release from the Occupational Safety & Health Administration (OSHA), OSHA’s investigation into the incident resulted in citations to the employer for two willful violations for the lack of fall protection, and for five serious violations for additional hazards. Those violations were as follows

Willful Violation – Employer failed to ensure that employees working from scaffolds approximately 17 feet high had adequate protection from falls by the use of personal fall arrest systems or appropriate guardrail systems.

Serious Violation – For employees who performed work on a scaffold, or who were involved in erecting, disassembling, moving, operating, repairing, maintaining, or inspecting a scaffold, the employer failed to train those employees to recognize the hazards associated with such work and to understand how to control and minimize those hazards.

Serious Violation – Employer did not train employees who were exposed to fall hazards to recognize those hazards and how to minimize the fall risk.

Serious Violation – Employer failed to ensure that employees used extension ladders with appropriate side rails, particularly while employees used the ladders to carry roofing materials up the ladder, which could cause the employee to lose balance and fall.

Serious Violation – Employer did not train employees using extension ladders to recognize the hazards relating to that work and how to minimize those hazards.

OSHA proposed penalties for these violations totaling $119,350. In addition, OSHA has placed Fairview Contractors in its Severe Violator Enforcement Program, designed to target employers who have committed willful, repeat, or failure-to-abate violations for frequent follow-up inspections.

The news release emphasized the “needless and avoidable” nature of the roofer’s fall to his death, noting that falls are the leading cause of death in the construction industry, despite how simple it is to identify and eliminate the risk of fatal falls. The citations were issued just weeks before the kick-off of OSHA’s National Safety Stand-Down, an event designed to encourage employers to speak directly with their employees about fall hazards and reinforce the importance of fall prevention.

On April 28, 2014, the Massachusetts AFL-CIO and the Massachusetts Coalition for Occupational Safety and Health (MassCOSH) released a report entitled “Dying for Work in Massachusetts: Loss of Life and Limb in Massachusetts Workplaces.” The report compiled data regarding work-related deaths in Massachusetts in 2013, and revealed a number of concerning statistics. The following excerpts are direct quotes from the report’s executive summary:

Forty-eight workers in Massachusetts lost their lives on the job in 2013.

For every worker killed on the job, ten more die from occupational disease. An estimated 480 workers died in 2013 in Massachusetts from occupational disease. A conservative estimate of 1,800 workers in Massachusetts were newly diagnosed with cancers caused by workplace exposures, and 50,000 more were seriously injured.

The average age at death was 49 years old, with a range of 19 to 81 years. 56% of those who were fatally injured on the job were 50 years old or older.

The construction industry remains one of the most dangerous for workers with eleven on-the-job fatalities occurring in 2013 (23% of total).

Falls of all types caused almost one-fifth (9 out of 48) of all occupational fatalities in Massachusetts in 2013. Six of the nine falls occurred in the construction industry.

Commercial fishing claimed the lives of two Massachusetts fishermen and lobstermen in 2013.

Workplace violence was responsible for the death of five workers, including a teacher, a police officer, a livery driver and two store workers.

As the report emphasizes, this data suggests that federal and Massachusetts regulatory bodies are still not doing enough to enforce workplace safety. According to the report, at the federal level, OSHA is understaffed and underfunded, and issues penalties that are “too little, too late” – a scenario that allows employers to elect to violate OSHA standards rather than spend the money to comply and protect employees, because paying a penalty would be cheaper.

At the state level, the report makes several suggestions. First, it recommends legislation extending workplace protections to all public employees. It also expresses the need for improvements to Massachusetts workers’ compensation, “to make it just, fair and accessible to all injured workers.” Next, the report emphasizes the need to pass the “Families of Fallen Workers Burial Bill,” which would increase the workers’ compensation burial allowance amount from $4,000 to eight times the weekly salary of an average Massachusetts employee. Finally, the report recommends swift enforcement of the new “Temporary Worker Right to Know Law,” which would provide temporary employees with important information about the work they are to perform, including their right to workers’ compensation.

The release of the report coincided with the 26th annual observation of Workers’ Memorial Day, on April 28, during which we remember workers who have suffered illnesses, injuries, or death from on-the-job accidents or conditions. As the data indicates, workplace safety in Massachusetts can be greatly improved, minimizing the risk of work-related injuries and fatalities.